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Take off your thinking caps and toss 'em in a corner, 'cuz you won't need 'em when you're watching this deliriously dumb thriller from 1997. Bruce Willis stars as a demoted FBI agent who comes to the aid of an autistic boy... more &raquo whose mind holds a potentially deadly secret. It seems that by gazing on a puzzle magazine and making order out of a hidden system of numbers, the 9-year-old autistic boy (Miko Hughes) has accidentally deciphered a sophisticated top-secret government code. This makes him the prime target of the ruthless bureaucrat (Alec Baldwin, in one of his silliest roles), and Willis comes to the rescue. This formulaic thriller sets up this plot with a lot of entertaining urgency, but you can't give any thought to Mercury Rising or the whole movie collapses under the weight of its own illogic and nonsense. The redeeming values are the performances of Willis, young Hughes, and newcomer Kim Dickens as a woman who agrees (perhaps too easily, it seems) to aid Willis in his plot to outmaneuver the bad guys. Mercury Rising is not a waste of time compared to other formulaic thrillers, but its entertainment value depends on how much you enjoy being smarter than the movie. --Jeff Shannon&laquo less

Member Movie Reviews

Movie Reviews

A very Good and Emotionally Charged Action Film

gobirds2 | New England | 04/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an action film with a lot of emotion behind it. It has a real heart felt story that questions plausibility and true credibility at times but it really hits home as it evokes genuine sentiment and feeling through a brutal world we now live in. This to date is the last great action film staring Bruce Willis. His performance of the dedicated civil servant doing what is right against all odds is admirable. His adversary Alec Baldwin stands for all that is wrong with a system that is supposed to protect our way of life and liberties while sacrificing the innocent trying to protect it at the enrichment of his own ego. At the center is a small autistic boy who supposedly can compromise Baldwin's plans who is being protected by FBI agent Willis who has fallen from grace. In simplest terms it is a film of right and goodness against greed and evil. On that level this film works. This film contains one of John Barry's last great scores as it gives credence to the story by bringing our most tearfully compassionate emotions to the surface while driving the narrative with an impassioned purpose. I like this film a lot I think because it takes the hardened tough good guy hero image and on an emotional level shows what drives him and what's really makes his heart tick. "

Mercury Rising--What an ironic title for an autism movie!

Pamelot | WashingtonDC | 06/21/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As the mother of an autistic child, I was intrigued by this movie when I found it while channel surfing. I choose not to comment on the believability or likeability of the plot, but will say instead that the actor who played Simon, the young autistic boy, did an OUTSTANDING job. The writers, apparently, also did some research on the condition. The use of the cards Simon kept pinned to his belt was right on the money. Autistic children comprehend so much better visually, and through the printed word, than they do through listening to people speak. The scene where Simon is spinning wheels on a toy car is also very realistic. My only other comment is on the irony that, in 1998, before anybody figured out or suggested that mercury causes autism (this is a theory first posed in 1999 and gaining more and more credibility every day),the producers had the foresight to name their movie about an autistic boy "Mercury Rising.""

Mercury Rising

Arnita D. Brown | USA | 01/16/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bruce Willis is an outcast FBI agent who is assigned to protect a 9 year old autistic boy who is the target for assassins after cracking a top secret government code. This moves at a breakneck speed building tension along the way as various covert types try to put a bullet in Willis and companies collective head. "Mercury Rising" is a very entertaining and solid thriller. "

Actually 3.5 Stars... but worth watching!

Arnita D. Brown | 06/29/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Ok here we go. The bad guys are Balwin and a top secret government agency which has an encrypted code for all its agents called Mercury Rising. Well lo and behold a 9 year old Autistic boy breaks this code which was in a puzzle magazine as a test for code breaking geeks. Ummm, somehow this sounds dumber than it really is. Enter now the renegade FBI agent Willis, who somehow gets assigned to investigate the boy's parents murder. (Who were murdered by Baldwin's top secret government agency). Now that is the setting for the clashes which follow. Willis kidnaps the boy to save him from being killed. And then a all too nice of a lady Kim Dickens (who is very cute by the way)befriends Willis, :), and the Boy and helps Willis protect him. Actually Willis (A stranger) shows up at her apt. at 2am and she lets him in. Umm,? There are some very good action scenes. Great 5.1 DD sound in a few places. Overall a relatively good flick. I think Baldwin, Willis and Dickens do a good job. The 9 year old boy came across pretty credible also. Just lean back, relax and enjoy and you won't be disappointed. 3.5 STARS."